Tottenham warned they must survive ‘lion’s den’ in Frankfurt to salvage season | OneFootball

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Tottenham Hotspur have been warned they will walk into the "lion's den" at Deutsche Bank Park on Thursday night for their Europa League quarter-final second-leg meeting with Eintracht Frankfurt.

Spurs' season hinges on Europa League progress in Germany and the last-eight tie is finely poised after a 1-1 draw in north London last week.

Boss Dino Toppmoller made reference to the partisan support Frankfurt would receive after the stalemate and their last meeting with an English opponent in West Ham in 2022 produced an end-of-match pitch invasion with fans letting off flares.

Asked how loud it will be, Toppmoller smiled: "They will feel it tomorrow.

"There are many factors which are important. The key for success tomorrow will be that we have a good start into the match, we are right away on the pitch and that we make use of the advantage of playing at home."

Former Leeds defender Robin Koch acknowledged it would be foolish to expect Tottenham to crumble amid a hostile environment, but backed the Frankfurt supporters to turn the stadium into a cauldron of noise.

Koch added: "Well, I think we shouldn't count on that and shouldn't expect that Tottenham all of a sudden don't know how to play football because they are away.

"They play for everything tomorrow. Their league is more or less done, so they will give it everything and then especially in the connection with our public, the stadium will be a lion's den but I don't think Tottenham will give up too early."

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A hard-fought first leg leaves the tie in the balance (Getty Images)

While Frankfurt warmed up for this fixture with a 3-0 win over Heidenheim on Sunday, where in-form Hugo Ekitike scored for the 21st time this season, Tottenham suffered a painful 4-2 loss at Wolves to stay 15th in the Premier League.

It was the fourth consecutive away defeat suffered by Spurs and increased the scrutiny on under-fire boss Ange Postecoglou.

But Toppmoller insisted: "We still know about the quality of Tottenham. Of course I know the results they had recently, but they won also at Manchester United, they won at Man City. These are not little successes. It is quite special to win matches.

"The match from last weekend doesn't say anything because the only thing where they can reach anything is the Europa League so all their focus is on the Europa League."

Koch added: "You can feel it all over the city, in the club, in our team and everyone is looking forward to the match."